Device-to-device (D2D) technology is getting a lot of attention because of its ability to offer new services, improve system throughput, and offer a better user experience. Standardization work is ongoing in 3GPP for LTE release-12.
In the field of mobile networks, especially in radio access networks, there has been increasing demand for heterogeneous networks, where different types of access points and mobile devices communicate with each other. In addition, direct device-to-device (D2D) communication may be used to further boost the network capacity. D2D communication refers to a communication mode between two or more user equipments (UEs) that does not include, or does not always include, an access point (AP) in a communication path between or among the UEs. D2D communication is also called proximity service (ProSe) communication. Proximity service identifies a UE that is in proximity of another UE.
In a communication network where different types of communication links share a communication resource, they may undesirably interfere with each other. For example, when D2D UEs and one or more non-D2D UEs share an uplink band during communications with a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), the D2D UEs and the cellular UE may interfere with each other.